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#sharethenuts shows the community roots of crowdfunding

15th April 2015

Cutting out the middle man allows for revolutionary campaigns.

Alternative finance is a world of two sides. On one hand, there’s the spreadsheets, the vital tens and hundreds that keep our economy ticking over; but on the other, there’s a community spirit that argues connecting people directly with businesses can have an overwhelmingly positive social impact. At rebuildingsociety.com, we believe the directness that the industry provides enables people to make better decisions about how to spend and raise money.

This is no more visible than in the motives behind a GoFundMe campaign launched by an Oklahoma restaurant owner. This week, Ashley Jiron’s note to a person without shelter went viral on social networks, and prompted the launch of a crowdfunding campaign allowing people to pay in advance for the meals of homeless people.

Crowdfunding takes a lot of different forms across a broad variety of landscapes – from music to business, and from art to altruism. Since the emergence of Kickstarter, the sector has exploded, and it’s an intuitive idea for people to pick up – rather than having all the middle men, all we need is the technology to connect people, and good ideas. It’s just a case of connecting up supply and demand.

Whether it’s fans funding artistic projects through a rewards-based system, investors putting their faith in start-ups on equity crowdfunding platforms, or lenders supporting the growth of excellent businesses like here on rebuildingsociety.com – the disintermediation of markets like these gives individual people the opportunity to pick how they want to invest their money. “Investment,” apparently, can mean all manner of things.